This week sees the start of the World Cup and, whilst I am of course looking forward to seeing England and hopefully watching us do well, I was more pleased to be able to start planning pre-season visits to OL1 with the announcement of the first friendlies. Micky Mellon has decided to go with real challenges in the friendlies this term with Bolton Wanderers, Sheffield Wednesday and another, presumably higher division, club as well visiting us for our preparations. It’s a shame we aren’t going to be able to visit Scotland again to watch Latics - especially for me personally as I couldn’t make Dundee United last season - but the three home friendlies will be a positive change to previous pre-seasons and give Mellon and his staff the chance to pit the squad against good quality opposition. Oldham return from the aforementioned week in Scotland on the day of the World Cup final, a tournament which has been hugely expanded by FIFA to 48 teams. We’ll see whether that works or not as the weeks go on, but one thing the expansion has done is allowed us the opportunity to see more ex-Oldham players in a World Cup than I can remember for quite some time. Australians Cameron Burgess and Aiden O’Neill both featured for us in the 2016-17 season, also known as Shezurrection II, after John Sheridan’s January return as manager provided the catalyst for us to survive in League One for the second season in a row. Burgess played over 30 games at the heart of the defence which supported Connor Ripley to equal the club clean sheet record, only bettered by Mat Hudson last season. Shez himself brought in O’Neill from Burnley to make his Football League bow, and how much of a boost to his career must that have been, having faith put in him by a former midfielder of Shez’s class and experience. Both have gone on to bigger and better things with Burgess now plying his trade at Swansea City and O’Neill at New York City. We also have ex-blues representation in the Haiti camp with their long-time captain and goalkeeper, Johny Placide, and centre forward and all-time top scorer, Duckens Nazon. They are remembered in unhappy times as they played for us during the League One relegation season which started our demise under the previous ownership, but individually they were clearly decent players. Placide was a bit of a maverick but an excellent shot stopper and Nazon’s best moment came with a brace at Ewood Park, against Blackburn, to put us 2-0 up in a match we really should have won. Both will be looking to become the Costa Rica of 2026 and beat Scotland to a knockout round spot.